On June 8, 1989, the quiet Vancouver, British Columbia, suburb of Richmond was shocked when a body was found lying in the yard of an abandoned house. The victim was a 44-year old nurse named Cindy James. She had been drugged and strangled. Her hands and feet had been tied behind her back. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police believed that Cindy’s death was either an accident or suicide.
The body of cindy curled up on the floor outside of her home
Cindy was attacked outside her home
In the seven years before she died, Cindy reported nearly 100 incidents of harassment. Five were violent physical attacks. Over time, the police began to doubt her stories. But Cindy’s parents never doubted that their daughter was murdered. Cindy’s father, Otto Hack:
“The police did not investigate the possibility of homicide, of somebody murdering her, but zeroed in on trying to prove that she committed suicide.”
It all began with mysterious phone calls four months after Cindy James separated from her husband. Tillie Hack, Cindy’s mother, said Cindy told her she didn’t recognize the voice:
“She said it was just a voice. Sometimes it would change, the sound, and sometimes it was just whispering. Sometimes it was just nothing, just silence.”
Police investigators at the scene of the suicide/murder thats walled off by yellow crime tape
Was it suicide or murder?
Otto Hack, Cindy’s father, felt her daughter wasn’t telling everything she knew:
“Of course, I think that we should add a qualifier there that she was very, very reluctant to talk about this right to the end, and our feeling was that she was withholding something extremely vital.”
Cindy reported the threatening calls to Vancouver police, who began investigating. Over the next three months, she said that the harassment got worse. At night, she heard prowlers. Her porch lights were smashed and phone lines severed. According to Cindy’s friend, Agnes Woodcock, Cindy said bizarre notes began to appear on her doorstep:
“She told me many times that he wanted to scare her to death. She said, ‘He doesn’t want to kill me, he wants to scare me to death.’”
One night, Agnes dropped by Cindy’s house for a visit:
“I went up and knocked on the door, there was no answer. I assumed she was having her bath. She did every night. And I thought I heard something. I wasn’t sure what it was.
When Agnes investigated, she came across Cindy outside:
“I found her crouched down with a nylon tied tightly around her neck. Cindy said she’d gone out to the garage to get a box and someone grabbed her from behind. All she saw were white sneakers.”
Cindy moved to a new house, painted her car, and changed her last name. She also hired a private investigator, Ozzie Kaban. The police continued their investigation and questioned Cindy several times. According to Ozzie Kaban:
“She wouldn’t tell them the entire story. She would be evasive, she would withhold information, and she simply would not act as a normal victim would act. And I can see where a police officer would have a tremendous amount of problem believing her story.”
Cindy’s mother thinks she knows the reason for her daughter’s reluctance:
“Cindy told me that after she was attacked, the knife was held at her throat and she was told that if you talk, your sister will be next, and then your mother. So just keep quiet, don’t tell anything.”
One night, Ozzie Kaban heard strange sounds coming over a two-way radio he had given Cindy. He went straight to her house:
“I went around the house and the house was locked. I was able to look into the house through a window and I found Cindy lying there. I took a look at her and I thought she was dead.”
Ozzie kicked in the door:
“There was a note that was pinned with a paring knife through her hand. I went to the telephone and called 9-1-1 and within about two minutes she revived briefly, and then they took her to the hospital. She told me that she noticed a man coming through the gate. The next thing that she remembers is being hit on the side of the head with a piece of wood or something of that nature. She then she remembered being held down on the floor, and she remembered a needle going into her arm.”
But to some, the incidents and her stories of harassment, seemed suspicious. Neal Hall covered the story for the Vancouver Sun:
“There was never a fingerprint from a suspect, there was no independent corroboration. Cindy saw this person, or sometime she said there were two, sometimes three people. One and a half million dollars, it’s been estimated, the police spent investigating Cindy James’ complaints. More than a hundred incidents. And they could never find a suspect.”